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About Gayle Carline

Gayle Carline is a typical Californian, meaning that she was born somewhere else. She moved to Orange County from Illinois in 1978, and landed in Placentia a few years later.

Her husband, Dale, bought her a laptop for Christmas in 1999 because she wanted to write. A year after that, he gave her horseback riding lessons. When she bought her first horse, she finally started writing.

Gayle began writing journalistic pieces for California Riding Magazine, then quickly added "humor columnist" to her resume with a weekly column in her local newspaper, the Placentia News-Times. What she really wanted to do was write mysteries, however, so in 2009 she crossed that off her list with the first of her Peri Minneopa mysteries.

Never at a loss for words or stories, she will continue to write as long as the ideas keep popping into her head. In her spare time, Gayle likes to sit down with friends and laugh over a glass of wine. And maybe plan a little murder and mayhem for the next novel.

Author Updates

Yes, I really AM still working on Peri #5, and yes, I can see the ending, just around the bend, as they say. It's been an absolute beast of a story to tell--simple and yet complicated and I couldn't find its rhythm and more whining that you don't want to hear. It will require more editing than any book I've written, but as I work toward the end, the structure has announced itself, and I'm glad we met.

For those of you who think each book gets easier to write, consider that a Public

FWIW, I am working feverishly on the 5th Peri mystery, and finally feel, in the second-muddle of an act, that I know where it's all going. That's the good news.

While I write, however, life goes on and other deadlines pop up, one of which is my weekly column. Every Wednesday, I leave Peri and her friends to write 600 words on Some Other Topic. It makes one feel a little distracted.

And when I went to Sonny Boy's choral concert last month and heard the beautiful words se

I went to the Public Library Association Conference for the first time this year. There were lots of great sessions with great information, and great speakers talking about the greatness of libraries. I heard Sally Yates speak so passionately about the ideals of this country, I wanted to run out and vote. Hasan Minhaj was funny, yet eloquent, about the need for E Pluribus Unum--Out of Many, One.

And yet, it was Elizabeth Gilbert who addressed my immediate need. I will try to e

I've been asked to teach a new workshop at the Southern California Writers Conference this month (in beautiful San Diego, click here for details) about story. The workshop came about after my hubby and I visited Michael Steven Gregory (conference director) and his wife Chrissie (conference behind-the-scenes organizer-problem-solver) over the summer.

Michael and I stayed up late a few nights discussing books and movies that we liked and didn't like and why we liked or didn't like the

I am happy. Living at Miss Linda's ranch, hanging out with my friends all day, is good. I get lots of food and attention. MomToo visits me pretty often. I'm always happy to see her, but when I first moved here, I got mad if she didn't come every week.

At least, as I counted the sunrises.

I was in a pen with Freeze and Briley. Then a new horse came, Sebastian. He was next door, with Joey and Seven. Sebastian is a big horse, bigger than me, and ke

Here's what happened: In August, I got incredibly sidetracked by my latest WIPs, not to mention my horse (see Snoopy's blog). The manuscript I thought was ready for its closeup turned out to be not-so-photogenic. Every agent passed. So many agents...but a few of them gave me solid comments, which I am taking to heart and using to revise.

In the meantime, the three other books I plan to write are in various stages of 1) I'm 2000 words in and

I am in the midst of writing two books (possibly three), marketing my latest mystery, agent-shopping for the one book I've completed, and preparing to teach three workshops at September's Southern California Writers Conference.

As you can tell, my mind is in a complete whirl and the more I try to focus my attention on one thing I could get done, I feel compelled to click on that article about the Best Examples of Payback on some clickbait site.

After the last horse show, MomToo and Auntie Niki acted a lot different. They tried not to worry me about it, but I knew. The last horse show was my last horse show. MomToo kept crying and trying to hide it from me. I could tell, though, when she rode me, how sad she was.

It was okay, really. I like the shows, but I'm tired. My legs are always kind of achy, and I can't stand up as straight and round as I use

I think everyone is, but I still feel the weight of my sin when I realize I'm thinking about me-me-me nonstop. But I'm having a rough week.

On the horse front, I'm shopping for a new show horse. I've had to retire my love, my baby, my Snoopy, due to the fact that he can't be shown or even ridden without the kind of medical intervention that is sometimes called illegal doping. Which I would never do, for the simple reason that numbing

A quick post here to say that I'll be gone for a week, where I hope to get some writing done in between hiking and hanging out with friends (and taking care of our two maniacal canines). BTW, if you're planning to rob me while I'm gone: 1) the house will not be vacant; 2) our neighbors are very nosy, and 3) there's nothing of value to take (I'm a writer who owns horses--you do the math).

It's 4th of July weekend, so I suppose this post should be all flag-waving and barbecue goodness. In my own way, it is. I want to talk about last week's ALA Annual Conference.

ALA is American Libraries Association, and their annual conference is huge, and by huge I mean I heard participant numbers of 19,000 (I suppose that includes vendors and workshop leaders). This year's conference in Chicago crackled with the energy of thousands of librarians, all fired up to defend the First Am

After the Del Mar fiasco, I said I wanted to take him to the Burbank show, just to see if he was calmer, to see if his performance improved when he wasn't stressed and exhausted. I said he'd definitely be retired at the end of this season.

But Niki knew the truth of it, and in the end, so did I.

Every lesson at home told me that his body moved differently. I was now doing a lot of work to keep his should

I know that today is Memorial Day and we honor those men and women who died in service to our country. In November, we will honor the veterans, who served and were lucky enough to come home.

I don't use the word lucky lightly. In each service person's deployment, I believe there is some randomly special combination of circumstances that keep this one alive, and that one not. War is a uniquely random series of events. Napoleon lost at Waterloo because the fields were too muddy. The B

No one's saying that to my face, but I'm thinking it constantly. Since my last post, I bit a pretty hard bullet and subscribed to Publishers Marketplace. It is possibly the ugliest website in the western world, but it has a lot of information to give you--for a price.

I got a big fat list of agents who said they represent fantasy, then culled the list down to those who SERIOUSLY represent fantasy, and ende

I've been pretty quiet for a long time here, as has Snoopy. Last year was good for us, once we convinced Snoopy's body to cooperate. It took a few visits from Dr. Pollard, a new anti-inflammatory, and a bi-weekly shot of Adequan (joint lubricant) to get there. And by "there" I mean we got to a New Normal. Snoopy warmed up slower, and his left lead began to feel very much like an off-balance washing machine. But I learned how to push the back end and lift the front end to even him all o

Just as I got a little traction in both of my manuscripts, the editing came back on my fantasy. Isn't it frustrating to absolutely KNOW for a FACT how to stack your priorities, and have each one take a long time to check as complete?

The fantasy manuscript is edited. I am happy with it. I may be sick of it. Nevertheless (oh-how-I-love-that-word), I have already let it set sail to three different ports. One is an agent I've met, one is an agent I was recommended to, and one is a stra

I write one book at a time, which is hard enough sometimes, since I also write a 600-word column every week, but when I'm writing a book, I'm inhabiting that world. You might call me obsessive about it. It's hard for me to relax and have "down" time, because my head is constantly in Manuscript Land. Every attempt to watch TV, read a book, even a trip in the car makes me look out the window and wonder, "Could I drop a body by that strip mall? How much oleander does it take to kill

This weekend, I'm celebrating April Fool's Day with humor. Humor is a broad topic, and very subjective. What makes me laugh may not even make you smile. It might even make you scratch your head and say, "I don't get it." And that's the worst part about humor. If something doesn't make you laugh, do you say, "Well, that kind of humor doesn't appeal to me"?

The good news about being an author-entrepreneur is that I can write whatever I want. The bad news is, I can write whatever I want. This can be a dangerous thing if your mind tends to wander, as mine does. Do people know me as a mystery author, or a humor author? Where does the Snoopy book fit into all that?
And then there came the day when I was in the shower and I thought, there's not enough books about girl pirates. As usual, I thought I'd write a little diddy, perhaps a novella or a sh

The title of this year's Beauty of a Woman Blogfest entry is taken from a book of the same name by James Thurber. He is a humorist, whom I admire for about a billion reasons, and it is his quote that I use as the name of my blog. If your sense of humor is like mine, look him up.

This post is part of the Beauty of a Woman BlogFest VI! To read more entries, and potentially win a fun prize, visit the fest page on August’s McLaughlin’s site between today and 11pm PS

I've begun starting my day differently for the past couple of weeks. Instead of being forced from my bed by the dogs sometime between 6 and 6:30, stumbling crankily to the kitchen to let them out and feed them, then going back to sleep on the daybed in the office, I've changed things up.

Now I do about 40 minutes of meditation and yoga instead of going back to sleep in the daybed. It dawned on me that my little gray cells, as Poirot called them, are not just a little cluster of crea

I know it's been forever since I've posted. I still adore you all, I'm just rushing down that deadline road, and I don't seem to have any brakes. It's hard to be focused on one manuscript's editing, another manuscript's genesis, and have to stop to write a column. Blog? I need more words for the blog?

So I'm pausing briefly to show you two characters in my office. I was going to give these away (I still might), along with the several (50, maybe?) other stuffed critters in my closet,

My writing career actually began with Christmas letters. The first one was such a success with our friends and family that I kept doing it. (BTW, the secret to a good Christmas letter is to keep it one page or less. People appreciate brevity.)

At one point, when I was completely on the fence about trying to write for publication, my hubby's cousin Amanda said to me, "I look forward to your Christmas letters. You are writing other things, aren't you?" She is now deceased, b

This little story started life as a column describing my own family's trip to get a tree. I liked the concept, so I fictionalized it, toyed with it, juggled it, stretched it, yadda-yadda. Now, due to my sudden allergies, we've had to abandon the live pine tree and get an artificial tree.
All that's left is this story. Enjoy.
**************************************
Norman Rockwell is visiting again. I never get any notice, not that I need one. He always

I'm currently working on a fantasy, involving pirates (male and female), dragons, and Caribbean islands. In contrast to my mysteries, where I've got everything kind of worked out beforehand, this manuscript is being written off-the-cuff, by the seat-of-my-pants, without basic regard for where it's going and how it will end.

Talk about a mystery!

I'm traveling to islands (that I'm totally inventing) with my heroine, Lisette de Lille, meeting new people and experiencing n

Now that I have my own office, my writing den, my oasis of wordsmithing (yes, okay, I'm still in love with it), I have been writing A LOT. My pirate fantasy is humming along at over 68,000 words and it's nowhere near the finish line. What is surprising me the most is that I should be in the middle of the book, where I begin to slow down and take forever-effing-long to dig my way out and head for the third act. But this story is zipping along so fast, sometimes I feel like my fingers are in a hur

For years, I have roamed like a nomad through our home. Mostly, I wrote in the family room, laptop on my lap and Turner Classic Movies on, for background noise. Sometimes I would move into the living room. When I was absolutely determined to finish a manuscript, I took it to the dining room or the kitchen, sat at the table, and pounded out 20,000 words in less than a

Here's a little excerpt from A MORE DEADLY UNION, just because it's Friday:

* * * * * * *

Oh no oh no oh no. Benny’s mind raced about like a cyclone, a whirl of thoughts and ideas, swirling too fast for him to capture one and focus on it. The bright sun outside the hospital had reflected too harshly on everything. The people milling around inside the emergency room had been too loud and too colorful and too busy. It was all too much.
Thankfully, he was home. Home,

I've lived long enough to know that change comes to everything. Sometimes it's a matter of simple, small adjustments over time, so that you don't notice that nothing is the same until you look back through the years. Sometimes it's an abrupt difference in the way you do things, or where you live.

We've recently been through the abrupt thing, as a result of the small adjustments. My horse trainer Niki has moved two doors down--that's the abrupt one.

Remember a few posts back when Dr. Pollard was flexing Snoopy's feet and discovered his front feet were bothering him?

As treatment, we've been giving Snoopy Previcox (an anti-inflammatory and pain reliever) and monthly Adequan injections for osteoarthritis. He has his days where he starts out stiff and warms out of it, then his days where he's good unless I jog him in a sudden, tight circle right. His lope still feels like an off-kilter washing machine. So I started thinking.

I went to a horse show in the moving box. Usually I go with Bubba, but this time, a girl named Gigi rode with me. She was a silly girl, stomping around in the moving box and asking, "Where are we? Where are we?" all the time. I told her we were going to a horse show, but she wasn't sure.

"How do you know?"

Well, I know because the day before, Auntie Niki took the clippers and buzzed them all over my legs and my face. An

Gayle: You didn't almost die. Although I thought you were going to kill me.

Snoopy: Well, you didn't protect me. All those little bugs were running up my nose.

Gayle: I am sorry about that, but they weren't little bugs. They were little fluffy seed pods from the field of weeds next door. You had fly spray on, but there's no repellent for flying plants. I know they were uncomfortable.

I haven't posted in a while. Here's the thing: Snoopy's been going through some issues with his legs. At first, we thought he had tweaked his left hind flexor tendon (I always want to call it a tendor flexon). We treated it with drugs and walking and it seemed to get much better.

Except that when we started riding him again, his left lead suddenly felt different, as in, riding an off-kilter washing machine. His left hind leg just wasn't advancing enough to round his back and s

I hope you all had a very nice holiday. I'm not really sure what a holiday is, but last month, MomToo brought me candy canes and carrots and apples, more than usual. So I guess holidays mean treats.

I like holidays.

Now that it is the new year, I am another year older. I don't understand this, either. My birthday is April 28, but MomToo says all Quarter horses have their birthdays on January 1. I didn't get a cake or anything.
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I like to take Snoopy to horse shows and compete in trail. He seems to love being there, judging by what I'd call his "happy energy" level, and believe it or not, I like that feeling of stepping into the arena in front of the judges and trying to do well.

No, I'm not a masochist.

Still, knowing Snoopy's limitations, I don't take him to a lot of shows. Four to five a year is all, once a month from February through August. Because we're both kind of newbies, we

Back in February, Snoopy and I were all set to go to Burbank to the "Show Me the Money" horse show. Then it rained and a bunch of people pulled their entries so they postponed the event. (Note: who are they kidding? It will take coordination between the AQHA, the LA Equestrian Center and possibly the Pope to get this rescheduled.)

So I kept practicing and Snoopy kept being his goofy self and finally-finally-finally we were able to go to the Hollywood Charity Horse Show. Th

Yesterday I had a tummy ache. It wasn't a big tummy ache. I felt fine when Auntie Niki let me run around on the longe line. I jumped and bucked and kicked. Then she got in the saddle and made me go over poles. I like to go over poles.

But when MomToo got on me, my tummy started hurting. It hurt so much that I laid down in the middle of the poles and made her jump off.